Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part II: morbidity.

1University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. carol_runyan@unc.edu

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Homes are an important setting for nonfatal unintentional injuries. The purpose of this study was to quantify and describe nonfatal, unintentional injuries in the United States, in which the injury took place at home.

METHODS:

Data derived from the National Health Interview Survey, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys for Outpatient and Emergency Departments. The nonfatal unintentional home injury rate and 95% confidence interval were computed for the United States overall (1998-1999), as well as by type of injury, gender, and age group. Weights were applied for each data set as designated by the National Center for Health Statistics.

RESULTS:

In 1998, there were more than 12 million unintentional home injuries requiring some form of medical attention. Falls were the most common injury among all age groups, followed by cutting/piercing injuries, and injuries associated with being struck by or against an object or person. Injury rates were highest among the oldest and youngest age groups. There was inconsistency across data sets with regard to the presence of location information and definitions of the home environment, inclusion criteria, and the presence of external cause of injury and poisoning codes (E-codes). Depending on the data set, information was missing for 8% and 41% of cases on the location of injury, making it impossible to determine whether the injuries occurred in the home environment.

CONCLUSIONS:

Falls are a significant problem, particularly among older adults. Additionally, data collection systems need to be improved so that location of injury data are routinely collected using consistent definitions so as to allow comparisons across data sets and over time.